Motor vehicles experience many drive cycles where the vehicle is operated on roads and within government regulations. During these drive cycles, a drive-cycle impact may occur when the vehicle collides with other vehicles or objects. During these collisions, an object may impact the cowl top near the base of the windshield. Prior-art solutions that reduce cowl-top impacts include cowl air bags that deploy over the windshield during a collision. Cowl air bags may be expensive, difficult to service, and constrain styling flexibility.